Hospital 444
Chapter 167 - 16 We May Not Be Able to Leave

Chapter 167: Chapter 16 We May Not Be Able to Leave

This world has no gods...

"Or rather, it’s not the kind of god we imagine."

As a doctor, Dai Lin had encountered many patients who had fallen to the edge of despair. When people found themselves in dire straits and all human efforts seemed unable to alter their situation, they would yearn for miracles.

"We just like to think that by offering sacrifices to the gods and praying to them, we can get what we want."

Gao Heyann nodded, "You’re right."

"What might not exist are the omnipotent gods, who are also compassionate towards humanity, that people long to be real."

However... if there really were gods... would they actually care about human life and death?

What exactly was the so-called Mother of Black Blood? How could offering a goat’s head grant villagers entirely different appearances? And... the appearance of someone else!

Dai Lin suddenly remembered "Lu Pan" from "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio"...

Could it be...

"You guys..."

Suddenly, Dai Lin and Gao Heyann turned around to see a disheveled middle-aged man with unkempt appearance and hideous features.

"Do you know what a goat is?"

Dai Lin immediately realized...

He was the madman Gu Yanan had spoken of!

Dai Lin immediately approached and asked, "May I ask you..."

But then, something happened that Dai Lin could have never imagined.

"Which department are you doctors from?"

The madman moved closer to Dai Lin and spoke in a voice only they could hear.

"You are doctors from Hospital 444, aren’t you? Is it because of Gu Yanan?"

"What?"

"Don’t react abnormally, the villagers might be watching us, and each villager’s consciousness can be relayed back to ’it’... After I gave Gu Yanan my business card, finally, someone from the village made it to the hospital!"

Gao Heyann also came over and was equally startled by these words.

Dai Lin reacted quickly, shouting, "Who are you? Why are you asking that?"

"The goat is not what you’ve seen!" the man continued. "I’ve been able to stay lucid until now because I took the Cursed Flesh that Dr. Qin Lie gave me!"

Dr. Qin Lie?

Gao Heyann suddenly remembered, and spoke in a hushed tone too, "You mean... Dr. Qin Lie from the Fierce Ghost Department? He’s the oldest doctor in the internal medicine department. My sister mentioned him when she was taking her attending physician exams; he was an examiner. But he went missing afterward!"

"Dr. Qin was taken to that cave by ’it’..."

Taken into a cave?

"Why do you know we are doctors?"

"It has to do with the Cursed Flesh I’ve taken... It’s a sort of..." but then he quickly changed the subject, "No, no, no, that’s not important, to make a long story short, the goat is not as you’ve seen..."

Suddenly, a voice came from a distance.

"Ah Chang, let go!"

Dai Lin and Gao Heyann immediately looked over.

It was an elderly man with a dignified air, and from his features, one could tell that he must have been quite handsome in his youth.

However, upon seeing the old man, Gao Heyann’s face revealed an expression of utter horror.

Luckily, Dai Lin stood in front of her, blocking her face from view.

The elder, smiling, said, "The two of you must be visitors here to enjoy our village, right? Sorry, I am the village chief. My name is Mozhao. Welcome to Heizhao Village... Ah Chang was traumatized some time ago, which is why he has become like this."

This person is...

The village chief???

Dai Lin hadn’t noticed Gao Heyann’s expression, but he was already on high alert around the village chief.

"Ah, so you’re the village chief? Just now at the guesthouse, there were a couple of villagers looking for you." Dai Lin quickly spoke up, trying to divert the village chief’s attention.

"Oh... the Huang brothers, right? Mother has bestowed upon us a new lamb..."

Dai Lin cleared his throat and asked, "Village chief, who is... the Mother?"

A deputy director of the Fierce Ghost Department... a doctor qualified to be an examiner...

Was he killed in the cave by that Mother?

How could he and Gao Heyann possibly contend with that?

Now, all they could do was try to gather more information, find Gu Yanan, and escape from Heizhao Village!

The village chief, meanwhile, maintained a gracious smile, "The Mother is our Heizhao Village’s protective deity. All the goats raised in the village are offerings blessed by the Mother."

"I see... but we’ve never heard of such deities. We’ve heard of Mazu, but the Mother..."

The village chief still wore an unchanging smile.

"Tonight, we have a ceremony to assign a new lamb. You are both welcome to join."

A sinister premonition suddenly hit Dai Lin.

The village chief, did he already know something?

"All right, I’ll be taking Ah Chang away with me."

The village chief said while moving closer, "He’s not in a good mental state right now, I need to take him to the village clinic."

Dai Lin and Gao Heyann felt a sense of foreboding.

Could the village chief have really discovered something?

But now was clearly not the best time to come to blows.

The village chief before them was probably no ordinary man!

"Oh, right," the village chief suddenly turned back, looking at Dai Lin and Gao Heyann, "Have you seen any black goats in the village?"

Black goats???

Dai Lin immediately thought back to the previous night.

"Black goats?" Dai Lin didn’t answer directly.

"Mhm, if you have seen them... then you, could receive even more blessings from the Matriarch Ancestor."

Dai Lin and Gao Heyann felt increasingly uneasy.

"Blessings"?

Dai Lin shook his head.

"No, village chief."

Gao Heyann also said, "I haven’t seen them either."

"Is that so... Such a pity."

The village chief then approached the "madman" called A’chang and grabbed him.

"I won’t go with you! Let go!"

It looked like A’chang was going to struggle, but then, the village chief firmly grabbed his hand and pulled him backward!

An old man actually managed to easily seize a middle-aged man’s hand and quickly walk away!

Dai Lin wanted to step in, but was grabbed by Gao Heyann.

"All we can do now is endure..." Gao Heyann whispered, "Now is not the time for desperate measures."

Then, she leaned close to Dai Lin’s ear and said, "He looks exactly like... Doctor Qin!"

She had seen photos taken by her sister and a few doctors from other departments in the past.

Among them was Doctor Qin Lie, who had gone missing for many years.

Village Chief Mo... looked exactly like Doctor Qin!

Dai Lin immediately understood.

"He’s definitely not Doctor Qin!"

"This is exactly like the situation with Wei Zhengxian’s brother..."

"Then, what about this ceremony he mentioned for tonight?"

Without a doubt, it must be a trap!

If one were to go, no one could predict what terrifying things might happen.

But at the moment, they clearly had little choice.

"Go!"

Gao Heyann enunciated the word clearly and forcefully.

The goats are not as we have seen them...

Do not eat the goat meat...

Afterward, the two of them walked through the village with heavy hearts.

No matter where they went, they could see the goats within each pen.

All were white goats; there were no black goats anywhere.

"If what we saw weren’t goats..."

"Dai Lin," Gao Heyann spoke at that moment, "Whether what we saw are goats or not depends on our perception. Here, goats no longer represent the concept we are familiar with."

"Dr. Gao?"

"The hospital has dealt with similar cases in the past. The things we believe to exist, or don’t exist, become entirely different under the power of a curse."

Then, she looked at the goats in the pen before them.

"Vice Director Lu Yuan also died under such a curse..."

Dai Lin instantly remembered what Lu Yuqing had said to him.

"Prepare yourself mentally, Dr. Dai. We have already been ’tainted by the flesh,’ and we can no longer leave Mozhao Village through ’Cursed Flesh.’ We might never be able to leave... ever."

Time passed...

The night fell...

The people from each household in the village started to leave their homes, gathering and moving in the same direction.

Dai Lin and Gao Heyann followed the crowd.

In the village, there were only two types of people... extremely beautiful or extremely ugly.

Regardless of age or sex, it was the same for everyone.

And all the people gathered at the base of a mountain on the east side of the village.

There lay a massive cave, like a car tunnel.

The so-called Matriarch Ancestor of the Black Blood...

Was inside!